Our Gingerbread Homestead. As promised!

12:05 PM

I felt inspired this year via my friends over at SimpleBites to create a Gingerbread house. With the help of our 2 kids... and without using any dairy or corn ingredients. And, it was a smashing success! ... if a bit messy. I have to admit that royal icing is NOT my preferred medium to work with. LOL.

Also, it's time for a (small) confession. Most of the baking that takes place in our house is done by my amazing Hubby. He's especially good at making cakes, breads, quickbreads... just about anything you could possibly dream up. As I type this, he's making his annual booze-filled fruit cake from scratch.... which I will put up here sometime in the very near future...

But, I digress!

We made our Corn-Free, Dairy-Free Gingerbread Homestead this morning and here's how we did it:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses,
cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda together until the mixture is
smooth. Blend in the flour and water to make a stiff dough. Chill at
least 30 minutes or until firm.

* We ended up adding a little extra water at the end to get rid of the "crumbly" texture... maybe about 2 extra tablespoons*

Mix all of the ingredients together using an electric hand mixer,
until the icing is smooth and thin enough to be pressed through a pastry
bag with a writing tip.
** umm... we didn't have a pastry bag with tips... we just spread it on with knives HAHAHA**

I powdered it all in Corn-free Powdered sugar to create "snow". Also, yes, that's a witch you see on the side of the cottage... Ani said that there had to be one b/c they always live in candy houses (Hansel and Gretel).